Stratton Sagebrush Ecological Research Site: An Experimental Approach to Assess Various Grazing Treatments on Vegetation and Wildlife Communities across Managed Burns and Habitat Controls

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Research Task: 8327CFC.3.0
Task Manager: Cameron Aldridge

Grazing and burning are two tools that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has for managing shrub-steppe ecosystems, which provide crucial habitats for many sagebrush specialists, including Sage-Grouse. However, the availability of information regarding appropriate timing and levels of grazing in these fragile systems is limited. In 2004, the Fort Collins Science Center and the BLM Rawlins Field Office began a cooperative effort to re-establish long-term ecological research at the Stratton Sagebrush Hydrology Study Area in south-central Wyoming. For more than 30 years, Stratton has been a research site for studies of hydrology, soils, wildlife, and vegetation, making it the only high-elevation sagebrush research site for which there is long-term baseline data. The work associated with this task will evaluate the long-term responses of Stratton’s vegetation and wildlife to various grazing and burning treatments. Within grazing and burn treatments and controls, scientists will (1) quantify Greater Sage-Grouse, songbird, and small mammal abundance and habitat use/association; (2) evaluate changes in wildlife species (presence and abundance) over the past 30 years to determine how current grazing and burning practices are affecting wildlife populations in a sagebrush ecosystem; and (3) continue long-term research assessments to evaluate changes in the vegetation community and wildlife associations as they relate to BLM adaptive-management activities and research.

For more information contact Cameron Aldridge